Gallery: We Aren't Cool Enough for These Sweet Vintage Motorcycles
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At this year's Quail car show in Monterey, California, one class focused on "Sports and Racing Motorcycles," many of them European machines built in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.
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The class was dominated by Moto Guzzi motorcycles, including this 1950 Astore.
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The Astore, descended from the Moto Guzzi GTV, was the Italian company's first significant design of the post-war years.
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This bike, owned by Mark Leonard of California, came with the optional chrome tank and alloy wheels.
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This is a Moto Guzzi GT16, a model the company produced between 1928 and 1934. This bike was the first of its kind made with a sprung frame design, one of just 754 like it.
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This super-slim Moto Guzzi Motoleggera looks like a bike from the earliest days of the motorcycle industry, but it's actually a 1953 model. With just a 66-cc engine, it was an affordable model that appealed to many in Italy's struggling post-war economy.
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The special class wasn't all Moto Guzzis. This is a 1925 Brough Superior SS100 Alpine Grand Sport, an early example of one of the fastest motorcycles of its time.
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George Brough left his father's motorcycle to run his own shop (thus the name Brough Superior), and had many devoted fans. T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) owned eight and died riding one. George Bernard Shaw and Orson Wells were also owners, as is Jay Leno.
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This is the bike George Brough rode at the six-day 1925 Austrian Alpine Trials. The engine was modified to run on lower compression, which helped the bike run at high altitude.
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Between 1929 and 1930, Moto Guzzi built more than 4,000 examples of this bike, the Sport 14.
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Paton S1 may sound like an American name, but this bike is actually an homage to Geseppi Patoni, who started his own racing outfit after leaving the Moto Guzzi team.
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The S1 was built in 1968 as the first street legal Paton, powered by a 649-cc 4-stroke engine that produced 71 horsepower.
